Interesting read > Another way to redeem passive lurking is by making a clever joke that shows that you are above the whole thing. Twitter’s quote tweet functi

Interesting read > Another way to redeem passive lurking is by making a clever joke that shows that you are above the whole thing. Twitter’s quote tweet function, especially, enables users literally as well as metaphorically to appear above the conversation and to cleverly one-up their opponents from this privileged position. The game, in effect, is this: Who can appear the most above it all? This sounds like the proletariat mimicking their leadership, in that the above is a description of how politics seems to work. We need a better class of example-setters before we're going to see better behaved societies. The topic of discussion is quickly lost, and any hope of progress towards a resolution along with it, amongst a competition of witticisms. I'm quite happy with this cleverness of mine: "I'd rather be right than popular, and I often am." But this could just be an intellectual hedging of my bets against whatever the real-life-vulnerability equivalent of down votes is; Stern, disapproving glares.